§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether his attention has been drawn to the case of Patrick M'Quaide, of Gola, county Monaghan, a prisoner in Dundalk Gaol, on a charge of simple trespass upon his evicted farm, who has not been brought to trial; and, can he state what grounds exist for his detention in prison; why he was not arraigned at petty sessions; and who is the judge responsible for his arrest and imprisonment?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI replied to a similar question addressed to me on this matter on the 25th February, and have nothing further to add to the answer which I then gave.
§ MR. MACALEESEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if he is aware that Owen Treanor, an old man close upon 70 years of age, an evicted tenant of the Scottish Provident Association, in the barony of Truagh, was arrested on the 18th of August last, and kept imprisoned in Dundalk Gaol till the 31st of January without being brought to trial; was this man's offence, a trespass on his evicted farm, punishable at petty sessions by a small fine; who was the judge who committed him to prison; and, is there any means of compensating this man for the serious injury done to him by this proceeding?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI am informed that the property on which this man was a tenant is in Chancery, and that he was committed to prison for contempt under an Order of the Court of Chancery, having been found in forcible possession of the house and farm from which he had been evicted. He subsequently purged his contempt by agreeing to give up possession, and was discharged from prison on an Order of the Court of Chancery on the 28th January last. The responsibility for the proceedings in such cases rests altogether with that Court, and the Executive have no power to interfere.